New member in west Michigan

[Ryan C Burch]

Hello Everyone!  My name is Ryan C Burch, and I am a new member (longtime lurker) here a BiggerPockets.  I'm currently trying to absorb everything I can from this website, and I'm happy to be introducing myself to the community.

Obligatory Bio: My partner and I have worked and lived in GR for most of our adult lives.  I work as a banker while he does tech support.  We've thrown away a great deal of money over the years renting like chumps because we never wanted to be tied to one area. That is, until we considered house hacking and realized that buying a home would give us MORE freedom to move around, not less. Now we are totally hooked on the idea of buy and hold real estate!

Recently, we started our first business: we designed a special mid-price organizer for tabletop gaming (D&D nerds here).  With that launching soon, we are avoiding the temptation to dive into the profits we make and, instead, sinking those profits into real estate.  

Our second business, Paw Print Properties, is an LLC with which we plan to buy homes in need of work in up-and-coming areas of West Michigan, then update them to be cat and dog friendly. I know many landlords don't go this route, but high quality water proof flooring looks amazing these days, and millennial pet ownership has already outpaced boomers.